Our Financial Planning Process

Discovery

Before we start any journey, we find out where we currently are. In order to know where you should go next, we need to know where you’ve been.

Risk

No one wants to take on unnecessary risks. We help you discover what level of risk you are most comfortable with. This becomes your ideal portfolio. We also help you craft an acceptable portfolio. An acceptable portfolio is used in-case your ideal portfolio is too conservative to produce returns that would enable you to meet your financial goals.

Assets

To estimate the likelihood of meeting your goals, we need to know how much you currently have and how much you are currently saving. Whether it’s IRAs, 401(k)s, pensions, taxable accounts, real estate, or just a large savings account, we want to see your full financial picture

Family

Your financial life is more than a number on a page. We want to know about your family life and how they will affect your long-term financial goals.

Retirement

Retirement is the largest purchase you will ever make. When you want to retire, what you want to do in retirement, where do you want to be when you retire, and who will retire with you are all of the utmost importance when deciding how to fund and create the optimal retirement lifestyle

Goals

We understand that retirement may not be on your mind 24/7. We want to know what other financial goals you may have. We want to help you plan for your travel, new home, charitable gifts, and anything else that you hope your wealth can fund.

Priorities

What are your priorities? We help you understand how current lifestyle, desired retirement lifestyle, investment risk, saving rate, and occupation play into your financial picture.

During our discovery process, we want to know how you invest. We have a strong investment philosophy, but we know you do too. We want to learn how we are alike and how we are different. Click on the money icon to the left to start our complimentary analysis comparing what you are currently doing to what we would do for you.

We Track Your Progress

We use state-of-the-art financial planning software. This software allows us to track your progress towards your financial goals. It has a multitude of uses.

College Calculator

Our college calculator can help you get a sense of average costs, or look up a specific school and estimate what it will cost when your child is 18.

Health Care

As a financial plan is developed your, it will be important that we use realistic health care expenses so that you can be confident in your plan’s results. We have access to information from reliable database sources that will provide a good estimate upon which to plan for this critical need.

Social Security Maximization

Here you can see the impact of taking income from Social Security earlier and later, and you can decide which strategy makes the most sense for you

What Are You Afraid Of?

Instead of worrying about the factors you can’t control, such as inflation, how long you live, lower-than-expected market returns, etc., use this tool to see how changes could affect your plan.

Smart Calculations

Unfortunately, because future returns are unpredictable, there is not a single answer to how to plan. First, we look at Average Returns, which assumes you receive the same return each year. This is a good starting point. Second, we look at Bad Timing which assumes you get the same Average Return over the entire Plan but with two years of bad returns right at retirement. Bad Timing illustrates that it’s not only the Average Return that matters. The sequence of returns can make a big difference in your results. Usually, the worst time to get bad returns is just before or after you retire. That’s just bad timing.

Probability Calculations

Your Probability of Success, as shown by the meter, uses a mathematical simulation, equivalent to 10,000 trials, to calculate your result. Your Probability of Success should be high enough to make you feel confident about the future without sacrificing too much today.

Our Investment Philosophy

Managing Investment Risk

We begin by understanding your feelings about risk. Whether you are a conservative or an aggressive investor, we can construct a portfolio for you. We define investment risk differently than the rest of Wall Street.

Wall Street uses volatility or standard deviation as a measure of risk. We use how much money you might lose.

We only take risks worth taking.

We don’t attempt to time the market

We don’t pick stocks.

We don’t make bets with your money.

Capturing Returns

Instead of trying to create value by picking “hot” stocks or attempting to time the market, we provide value by providing you access to the dimensions of excess returns.

Dimensional Fund Advisors

We utilize mutual funds from Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA). DFA doesn’t fall in the active management category or the index fund category of mutual funds. DFA avoids the expensive activity of stock picking and market timing, but they aren’t dedicated to matching an index.

DFA funds are only available to individual investors through DFA approved investment advisors. Pathways Financial Partners is approved for the purchase of DFA funds, but receives no compensation from DFA or any other investments. Over long periods of time certain types of stocks outperform their competition. Small company stocks outperform large company stocks. This creates a small company premium return. Value stocks outperform growth stocks. This creates a price premium. Stocks from profitable companies outperform stocks from non-profitable companies. This creates a profitability premium. DFA tilts their portfolios in favor of highly profitable, small-value stocks.

However, it doesn’t make any sense to pay $5 to get a $4 return. Implementation and net expenses play big roles in the investors return. DFA practices a flexible and patient trading strategy that allows them to avoid unnecessary trading costs. Dimensional Fund Advisors allow us to provide you best-in-class mutual funds. All of DFA’s mutual funds focus on limiting costs and increasing returns. This allows us to accurately and efficiently focus on your personal goals and financial plan.

We like to think of ourselves as the quarterback of your financial football team. As the coach of the team, you ultimately have the final say on what happens.

As the quarterback, we help pass along your decisions to the rest of the team. We help you effectively and efficiently communicate your needs and desires to your accountant, lawyer, insurance agent, and banker. We speak the same language as your other professional experts, and we can make sure what you want to happen actually happens.

Let us help you execute your financial plan.

Brian Murphy

Founder & President

Brian began his career at a large Wall Street firm in the mid 1980’s and founded Pathways Financial Partners in 1998 to be free from the inherent conflicts of interest prevalent in the larger firms.

Christina Boyd

Client Relationship Manager

A winding road that began in Printing Technology at Clemson University then traveled through all aspects of the hospitality industry, owning her own bookkeeping service, retail and wholesale sales ultimately led Christina to PFP in 2007.

Blake Davelaar

Financial Advisor

Blake works closely with 401(k) plan sponsors and participants helping them make smart decisions about investments and planning for retirement. In addition, Blake works closely with our team and wealth management clientele in the areas of financial planning and asset allocation.

Steve Bertram

Wealth Management Intern

Steve studies Accounting at the University of Arizona. Steve assists Pathways Financial Partners’ team members in planning and creates content for various Pathways Financial Partners’ media outlets.

Clark Knobel

Wealth Management Intern

Clark focuses on researching current and potential plan investment options, delving into the fine print of mutual funds, collective investment funds and ETF’s. Clark excels at gathering and presenting information in simple terms in regards to 401(k) plans for our clients.